Leadership matters. In a highly interdependent world in which mostly organizations or networks, not individuals, face the complexity of the many challenges of the modern age, leadership can make all the difference. However, in practice, leadership is approached from many different angles. While each approach has its pros and cons, something like a leadership maturity continuum does exist. Let’s have a closer look:
The authoritarian approach
Many leaders still use this style, consciously or not, and many people do not expect anything else from their leaders – especially in countries with an overall authoritarian culture, often in the developing world. It is also referred to as the autocratic leadership style.
There may be certain situations appropriate for this kind of leadership – for example, in high-pressure situations in which consulting with different people is not possible. Consider scenarios like military conflict, crisis management of a company that is on the brink of collapse or guiding a sports team in a highly competitive environment. In these cases, quick and efficient decision-making may be required, independent of the individual and possibly quite valid opinions of team members. This approach also tends to work in settings in which employees are not particularly empowered or the collective performance has not been very good in the past. In such scenarios often a strong leader is called for and accepted. However, in the long run, the leader might be perceived as dictatorial and controlling, producing resentment and disengagement among team members. This can even happen when the leader perceives himself as benign and believes in defending the team’s best interest. But not all team members might agree and conflicts can arise. The authoritarian style is therefore on the low end of the leadership maturity spectrum and ideally, should be transcended over time.
Leadership – Followership
In this more contemporary paradigm, the leader represents a vision that addresses an important need – so people follow the leader voluntarily. The vision holds some promise of transformation for the better. Because the leader fulfills this need, people feel inspired and follow. However, if the leader cannot deliver at least part of the promise, people may, as it often happens in politics, discontinue their loyalty. But in spite of some mishaps, when an earnest struggle is perceived, they often choose to continue with their support and followership even if the results are not quite as expected. This, in essence, reflects the servant leader style. The leader serves his followers instead of wanting to control them. And even when obstacles appear along the road, followers understand and support the struggle that their leader faces in pursuit of a greater vision.
Leadership to empower new leaders
In this case, the leader’s ultimate aspiration is not to cultivate followership. Rather the goal is to empower people, followers initially, so that they can become leaders themselves. This even can imply the possibility that indeed the original leader eventually has no role to play anymore. But truly excellent leaders are hard to come by and will always have a better project or deeper issue to move on to. The beauty of this leadership paradigm is that everybody gets uplifted in the process. Think of a rare breed of humans called serial entrepreneurs. They set up a company, make sure that a properly assembled team is empowered to keep the place up and running and then move on to the next enterprise. Richard Branson didn’t make it to the top because he is still looking at all the details of his first entrepreneurial endeavor and telling each employee what to do.
Of course, there are many ramnifications to the topic of leadership. A slightly different take on leadership styles can be found in this video:
Leadership in the Movies: Six Leadership Styles
Where do YOU stand?
Think about it – where are you in all this? Remember that even if you do not consider yourself to be a leader, you are always one. Everybody holds a leadership role of some sort, be it at work, with the kids, or at the local church group. In order to lead you don’t need to have a formally assigned role. Your leadership capacity is all important and determines how much impact you can have in life. In essence, leadership is not about control but about 1 – providing vision and direction, 2 – empowering people and 3 – letting go. There may be environments where the authoritarian approach might be the only way to go but remember – you can not evolve as a leader if the people that you are responsible for do not evolve at the same time. So in the long run, in the best interest of all, the spirit can only be to gradually move up in the leadership maturity continuum. Enjoy the journey!
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